During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, EC3 talked about why Austin Aries was brought into the Control Your Narrative promotion and a fan paying to speak with Aries in the Rant Room.

On Austin Aries joining the promotion:

“He reached out before it was decided that we were becoming a promotion in the sense of having television or live events. He said ‘I dig what you are doing and I would love to be a part of it.’ Here is a guy who is a former world champion and one of the best wrestlers in the world. He went away for a long time on a journey of personal discovery, and that is a story worth discovering. We had a phone call with him and it felt good. We looked at the ups and downs, and while he has opinions, there is nothing cancellable. It seemed logical and safe, and if I am bringing in a world champion, he can teach the younger generation. He is a leader and a locker room leader, and I respect that. Do I agree with him on everything? Probably not. But I can live with the fact that we have the same vision.”

On a fan paying to speak with Aries in the Rant Room:

“Yeah, so we were in Orlando and someone asked me if The Rant Room was real? I said it was and they asked to talk to Austin Aries. I said ‘sh*t! OK, I don’t know if he is here.’ The one problem is that The Rant Room was initially just meant for me, and bringing other people into my insanity was not the best choice, but those that support it were behind it. So Austin agrees, we find the guy and I bring them into the room. For those 3 minutes, all the fan did was talk about how good of a wrestler Austin Aries was and how much he respects him. After a while, the fan said ‘I wish you would just stop tweeting your opinions so much.’ Austin asked why and the fan had no justification. I’m like I think this is good. What I learned is that face to face, different opinions can find common ground and peace, and maybe that is what The Rant Room is for.”